Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983

Contents

• Preface ix
• Acknowledgments xvii
• Introduction 1
• Part I. 1980: The Recalibration of Disco
• 1. Stylistic Coherence Didn't Matter at All 11
• 2. The Basement Den at Club 57 30
• 3. Danceteria: Midtown Feels the Downtown Storm 48
• 4. Subterranean Dance 60
• 5. The Bronx-Brooklyn Approach 73
• 6. The Sound Became More Real 92
• 7. Major-Label Calculations 105
• 8. The Saint Peter of Discos 111
• 9. Lighting the Fuse 122
• Part II. 1981: Accelerating Toward Pluralism
• 10. Explosion of Clubs 135
• 11. Artistic Maneuvers in the Dark 155
• 12. Downton Configures Hip Hop 170
• 13. The Sound of a Transcendent Future 184
• 14. The New Urban Street Sound 199
• 15. It Wasn't Rock and Roll and It Wasn't Disco 210
• 16. Frozen in Time or Freed into Infinity 221
• 17. It Felt Like the Whole City Was Listening 232
• 18. Shrouded Abatements and Mysterious Deaths 239
• Part III. 1982: Dance Culture Seizes the City
• 19. All We Had Was the Club 245
• 20. Inverted Pyramid 257
• 21. Roxy Music 271
• 22. The Garage: Everybody Was Listening to Everything 279
• 23. The Planet Rock Groove 288
• 24. Techno Funksters 304
• 25. Taste Segues 314
• 26. Stormy Weather 320
• 27. Cusp of an Important Fusion 331
• Part IV. 1983: The Genesis of Division
• 28. Cristal for Everyone 343
• 29. Dropping the Pretense and the Flashy Suits 369
• 30. Straighten It Out with Larry Levan 381
• 31. Stripped-Down and Scrambled Sounds 400
• 32. We Became Part of This Energy 419
• 33. Sex and Dying 430
• 34. We Got the Hits, We Got the Future 438
• 35. Behind the Groove 449
• Epilogue. Life, Death, and the Hereafter 458
• Notes 485
• Selected Discography 515
• Selected Filmography 529
• Selected Bibliography 521
• Index 537